This question AGAIN, sorry.

louised88
louised88 Posts: 159
in Health and Weight Loss
OK, so I just went and looked up my BMR and TDEE on fitnessfrog, and my BMR is 1756, my TDEE is 2415. I'm seeing all this info telling me I should not be eating below my BMR, but MFP gave me a daily calorie goal of 1370 (I have it set to 1.5lbs loss per week but even at 1lbs/week, my calorie goal was something like 1450.)

A jump of nearly 400 calories seems like a lot to me though, and to be honest, eating around 1800cals seems like quite a lot as well (I don't really like meat, so unless I'm going to eat a ridiculous amount of vegetables, I'm going to be eating a disproportionate amount of carbohydrates and don't get me wrong, I love carbs, but I've found if I eat more than ~200g a day, I get dreadful cravings for more).

Does anyone have any advice? Have I miscalculated somewhere? Or am I crazy and I should be eating 1800 cals a day? I'm 5'4 and 210lbs, with a desk job and I walk for at least 30mins a day as well as lifting as heavy as I can in the gym 3x a week.

Replies

  • vorgas
    vorgas Posts: 741 Member
    I'm not familiar with fitnessfrog, but if they don't ask you about your muscle mass then the BMR is incorrect. To get your muscle mass you need to know your weight and your body fat %. This is because muscle burns more calories at rest (most of your day) than fat. Of course, MFP doesn't ask that question either :) The Katch-McCardle formula for calculating that is 370 + (9.7975872 * MusclePounds) or 370 + (21.6 x MuscleKilograms ). Eat at least this much to prevent starvation mode.

    As to food, if you are lifting heavy you should be getting more protein. There's lots of information out there, but a good rough number is 1g of protein per pound of muscle on lift days. You can get protein from whey, soy, egg, and meat powders. Since you don't say you're a vegetarian, I'm assuming these will all be ok.

    Getting a ratio of 6 calories per gram of protein out of a powder is pretty doable. A rough estimate of 125 lbs of muscle gives 750 calories in liquid protein on lift days. Should be pretty easy to hit your daily calorie goal that way.

    If you are really concerned, though, just gradually increase your intake. Add 100 calories per day this week (1470). If you are still losing weight, add 100 calories per day the next week (1570). Continue until you gain weight, then back off a bit.

    Hope that helps.
  • louised88
    louised88 Posts: 159
    It does, thank you! According to the Katch-McCardle formula, I should be eating at least 1550 cals, then. THanks so much for your help!
  • jesz124
    jesz124 Posts: 1,004 Member
    Also just to add, MPF does NOT figure in any exercise calories you burn. The figure it gives you is a bare minimum. It's up to you to eat back exercise calories.
  • cedarghost
    cedarghost Posts: 621 Member
    The Katch-McCardle formula for calculating that is 370 + (9.7975872 * MusclePounds) or 370 + (21.6 x MuscleKilograms ). Eat at least this much to prevent starvation mode.
    Just had my body fat and rmr measured at the doctor's office last week and this formula is within 25 calories of what my RMR was. Pretty cool.
  • vorgas
    vorgas Posts: 741 Member
    The question of how much you should eat comes up pretty regularly. Details can be found by doing a basic search. There are always slight differences and exceptions, but generally speaking:

    You should eat an absolute minimum of your BMR in calories to prevent starvation mode (bad news).
    Your lifestyle multiple calories should also be eaten to prevent muscle loss.
    Deficit should be created with exercise.
    If you go over 1000 calories per day in deficit (2 lbs per week), you will most likely lose muscle.

    As an aside, it takes your body 3500 calories to consume a pound of fat, but only 600 calories to consume a pound of muscle. If you don't exercise, your body will take the easy route and eat up that muscle.

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